Rivets are used to fasten and secure media in a variety of contexts. For example, the use of permanently deformable steel rivets in the construction of buildings and other infrastructure is well known. The rivet features a head on one end of a shaft and a so-called “bucktail” on the distal end. In a basic application, a traditional rivet was hammered in a punched or drilled hole in a medium. The bucktail end was then upset (i.e., deformed), so that it expanded beyond the original shaft diameter to hold the rivet in place. The permanent expansion of the bucktail end allowed the rivet to support tension loads (loads parallel to the axis of the shaft), as well as shear loads (loads perpendicular to the axis of the shaft) without need for replacement. However, such rivets provide imperfect solutions where a removable, reusable fastener is required.
For example, many holiday and special event decorations requiring a fastener, such as honeycomb paper constructions, are only occasionally assembled and are otherwise disassembled or compressed for efficient storage to be re-used at a later date. Permanent fasteners such as traditional rivet designs do not permit reversible media fastening and cannot be re-used due to deformation. Alternative fasteners such as paperclips, brass fasteners and the like may be used in such instances, however, they suffer from high failure rates and other issues.
Rivets manufactured from deformable plastics are also known, but are not designed for repeated re-use. A truly reusable rivet could have utility in a variety of environments, beyond those contemplated in the prior art.